In a Nutshell. Mini reviews of movies old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. And often no sleep.

Monday 24 February 2014

Dark Touch (2013)

You'll likely find Dark Touch in the horror section, but it's much more than 90 mins of cheap scares. It's foreboding and eerie like horror ought to be, but it's more emotionally upsetting than fleetingly unsettling. It deals with a terror that doesn't end when the film does.
It revolves around eleven-year-old Niamh. Bad things happen when Niamh is fearful, but she gets that way with good reason.
Dismiss the obvious comparison as soon as it enters your head and focus instead on the girl. Imagine you're eleven and ask yourself what's more terrifying, the things we do or the things we're capable of doing?

3½ sharp noises out of 5

2 comments:

cuckoo said...

I was going to watch this one late last year and then I saw it was those dirty Irish so I watched "Identity Thief" instead.

Based on your Nut I might watch it though. Sounds like good times.

Dr Faustus said...

The film doesn’t explain itself so you’ll need to get into the character’s mindset to understand why she does certain things, which isn’t a comfortable place to be. I think that was the idea, though, because the horror elements alone will be old-hat to fans of the genre. The poster art actually works against it in that respect.

It’s made by a French woman but it captures the dark, wailing essence of Ireland better than a lot of their own filmmakers do. That was weird to see.

Speaking of which, the Irish readers were rallying to lynch you but then one of them suggested a trip to the pub and there were cheers and beers, and everything was forgotten once the underside of the table became the ceiling.